Maker fight! SparkFun cuts ties with Adafruit in harassment dispute
- Reference: 1768437016
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/15/sparkfun_cuts_ties_with_adafruit/
- Source link:
Adafruit says it's being punished for demanding an end to online harassment attributed to SparkFun's founder and a former employee.
The tech at the center of the dispute are [1]Teensy development boards, which Adafruit obtains through SparkFun.
[2]
SparkFun CEO Glenn Samala, in [3]a letter dated December 8, 2025, said the company would do its best to ship outstanding orders until January 15, 2026, after which it will cancel any remaining unfulfilled orders.
[4]
[5]
According to Phillip Torrone, managing director of Adafruit, writing in a [6]YCombinator forum , "This happened after I sent an email reporting the founder, Nate [Seidle], for multiple harassing actions directed at
[7]Adafruit founder Limor Fried
, including behavior by him and a former employee. Instead of addressing that, they decided to kill the messenger, me, and also cut us off from Teensy." Torrone and Fried are [8]married.In response, Adafruit will now focus on [9]developing an open alternative to the Teensy boards, possibly named "Freensy."
[10]
Torrone went on to accuse Seidle of trying to damage Adafruit by scraping the website and "now potentially not paying royalties owed after more than a decade of consistent payments."
In a January 7, 2026, [11]forum post , Torrone explained that in July 2025, "we told SparkFun they needed to get their house in order. For years, SparkFun's leadership ignored specific behavior from leadership (and employees, now former) ... they had created and promoted hate sites, photoshopped images, and harassment targeting Limor, me, and others at Adafruit. This was done on company time, shared, promoted. This was reported to them. It was documented and ignored."
The post goes on to say that several months later, a particular individual at SparkFun resurfaced and promoted the material again. Adafruit again asked SparkFun to deal with the situation. Instead, Sparkfun ended its reseller relationship with Adafruit.
[12]Anthropic Claude wants to be your helpful colleague, always looking over your shoulder
[13]Google offers bargain: Sell your soul to Gemini, and it'll give you smarter answers
[14]Anthropic finds $1.5 million to help Python Foundation improve security
[15]AI industry insiders launch site to poison the data that feeds them
Torrone told The Register by email, "This is a long history, and we just had a kid, I am tired of dealing with Nate. Nate's wife Alicia runs [16]OSHWA , [The Open Source Hardware Association], and when I reported conflict of interests for that, Nate does things to us it seems (that relationship is not publicly disclosed)."
[17]
Image of Limor Fried and infant, at work designing open source hardware - Click to enlarge
In his email, Torrone explained that a series of conflicts had soured Adafruit's relationship with SparkFun. He pointed to website interference that occurred when the company was just starting out, alleging that it caused significant damage to the young company.
"Aggressive automated access originating from SparkFun infrastructure took our site offline and caused measurable revenue loss," Torrone said. "We blocked the relevant IP range as a result. Afterward, SparkFun contacted us requesting restored access so they could continue using our guides. Nate emailed Limor a non-apology."
[18]
Torrone also claimed that Sparkfun had published source code from Fried's work multiple times without attribution or license details. "When raised, we typically contacted Nate, and the material would later be modified," he said. "The problem persists, but auditing every library retroactively is not practical given volume and age."
As far as royalties go, Torrone explained that SparkFun had used a name that Adafruit had trademarked. "This matter was resolved, and to this day we receive compensation for those sales," he said. "I am hesitant to share detailed settlement specifics at this stage, particularly given uncertainty about whether SparkFun intends to continue honoring that arrangement."
The Register asked Samala and Seidle to elaborate on what Adafruit personnel allegedly said to warrant the termination of relations, and to comment on Torrone's characterization of events.
Samala pointed to SparkFun's [19]official response , adding: "As noted, this decision was made after much consideration and we wish Adafruit the very best in their future endeavors." Seidle didn't comment.
The Register asked Samala whether he would provide any of the alleged harassing material, whether he believed that material would fall under the company's Code of Conduct, and whether he'd care to respond to Torrone's claims. We've not heard more. We'll update this article if we do.®
Get our [20]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.adafruit.com/product/4323
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aWlxnGUpTMwko5BdQgwyQwAAAlA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.sparkfun.com/official-response
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aWlxnGUpTMwko5BdQgwyQwAAAlA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aWlxnGUpTMwko5BdQgwyQwAAAlA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46616775
[7] https://www.adafruit.com/about
[8] https://kids.kiddle.co/Limor_Fried
[9] https://forum.pjrc.com/index.php?threads/open-source-teensy-compatible-what-features-do-you-want.77584/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aWlxnGUpTMwko5BdQgwyQwAAAlA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://forum.pjrc.com/index.php?threads/open-source-teensy-compatible-what-features-do-you-want.77584/page-2#post-364465
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/13/anthropic_previews_claude_cowork_for/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/14/google_gemini_personalize_responses/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/14/anthropic_python_security/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/11/industry_insiders_seek_to_poison/
[16] https://oshwa.org/about/
[17] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/01/14/limor_image.jpg
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aWlxnGUpTMwko5BdQgwyQwAAAlA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.sparkfun.com/official-response
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Wow
You had a bad experience with Adafruit... so you doubt the story? The story may or may not hold up, but I'm afraid (afried?) that your order experience is irrelevant.
Re: Wow
Hey, hey, come on now.
Don't you know that if a company EVER messes up a SINGLE order that means the company is totally untrustworthy, only out to cause problems and stir up drama wherever it can?
Why, if they CANCELED this person's order then they are PROBABLY IN LEAGUE WITH SATAN and working to steal all the rice pudding and corrupt all our precious bodily fluids, let alone stirring up things with Sparkfun.
I bet you, by the end of the week, we will have heard AT LEAST three more examples of Adafruit RUINING somebody's life and then we'll HAVE to accept that as a statistically significant sample that proves Adafruit are the absolute pits. PROVES it!
So there! Nyaah!
> leaving me scrambling for alternatives
AdaFruit (and SparkFun) are consumer / prosumer companies. I don't truly believe you were 'scrambling' for alternatives when it comes to your "garage door opening hobby project".
Yes, I found out they're not a professional outfit when the interactives for one of my traveling exhibitions were delayed by several weeks. I'll definitely agree with that assessment.
The whole world …
appears to have become incredibly antsy and bellicose.
Probably time for everyone to take a deep breath … otherwise this won't end well … tears before bedtime the least of it.
The ghastly truth is that most of these tiffs are a real distraction from the contemporary truly horrid things that ought to be confronted and combatted.
Why not source their Teensys from elsewhere then?
Oh, I see, even Paul & Robin (who designed the Teensy line) indicate in their online store that " [1]SparkFun is now manufacturing Teensy products ", and so they redirect potential customers there ...
Well, if it's not an exclusive manufacturing deal¹, then maybe Adafruit could also put together Teensys, rather than starting another line that is " almost, but not quite, entirely unlike " Teensy. Then again, a new Teensy model (or similar) running on a Cortex-M85 (eg. RA8D1; 35% faster than Cortex-M7 clock-for-clock) with an external RAM option, could be awesome imho!
(¹- the 'developing an open alternative' TFA link suggests it is indeed "exclusive maker and seller" at present)
[1] https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy41.html
Re: Why not source their Teensys from elsewhere then?
... or 1.0 GHz RA8P1 for that matter ... ;)
Re: Why not source their Teensys from elsewhere then?
Isn't the main draw of Teensy the support and software we get from Paul? That is certainly why I've picked up a few (specifically, to use the software).
Adafruit's "Freensy" so far comes across as "just another Pico board (probably with CircuitPython)" and unless they manage something notably different compared to, say, Pimoroni's designs, not terribly interesting.
Nothing against Adafruit tech (or Sparkfun's, have bought products from both), not even got anything against CircuitPython versus plain old MicroPython, even tried some of Adafruit's existing RP2xxx lines, but ... If it ain't got Paul behind it, it ain't Teensy and there can only be bad stuff ahead if they carry on down that path.
Oh, and
Re: Why not source their Teensys from elsewhere then?
Probably a bit mean, but after reading all of that thread on the Teensy forum, the thing that ended up sticking in my mind was the person complaining that they needed a GHz microprocessor for realtime audio work but couldn't use any of the existing systems because the tiny (or even Teensy) microcontroller boards are just too small and slow, whilst he couldn't use others because Linux takes too long to boot and "get's in the way". He's clearly getting quite frustrated.
So, um, buy a "Linux" board and then, well, don't boot Linux. Code to the metal. Buy a second hand IBM PC compatible and don't boot Linux/Windows/xxxBSD/etc [1]
Maybe I'll go onto that forum and drop in a few URLs for, e.g., running the R'Pi bare metal.
But will have to wait for the "RTFM Rage" to subside, wouldn't want to express myself there with the same snidery bile that we can let fly at The Register.
[1] DOS still runs, and a good few mainboards provide sufficient GPIO for the DAC/ADC without resorting to PCIe or USB under DOS - although there may be difficulties accessing that GPIO, don't want to minimise that; starting with manufacturers not documenting it for you…
Re: Why not source their Teensys from elsewhere then?
The Teensy's were the first board I started with before designing my own - they were nicely put together and had good bootloader, which was the draw for me. Been a while since I played with these but agree Paul was someone I trust to deliver a quality product.
As for the other two... well, Adafruit put out useful stuff and clearly a lot of work goes into the tutorials that go with them. Sparkfun, not so much and they feel massively overpriced to me.
"Torrone and Fried are married"
That is already an enormous red flag when business deals are concerned.
Someone wiser than me told me once : never do business with friends, it never ends well. I'm guessing family is even worse.
Re: "Torrone and Fried are married"
By business do you mean in different companies? I ask only because Torrone and Fried both work at Adafruit.
Re: "Torrone and Fried are married"
It would probably have been a bigger risk to call the company 'Fried Circuit Boards'.
I just wanted to make sure I share my experience with Sparkfun and why I stopped using them a long time ago. I have had a handful of Sparkfun designs be duds and found them to have often non-existent support after the sale. Often pawning the support off on others.
On the other hand, Adafruit has supported their devices and owned up to errors even when they did not have to do so.
It’s up to every individual to do the work to figure out if the contents of a call-out are useful and genuine, it is way to easy for people to misuse them now a days.
What I do know is that Adafruit, Limor Fried and Phillip Torrone have always treated me with the utmost respect. I know this because their work and actions back that up.
It's my best guess that this was someone did not like the fact they got called out. Sparkfun having some "Calling-in" rule is BS because it allows for people to claim a problem is solved without actually solving it. So I would avoid anything that forbid public call-outs.
I think this is the right decision not to hide it all from the eyes of the public.
Soap opera
I've read the article twice, followed some of the threads on a number of forums and... still don't know what's going on.
Both companies are small-ish and very dependent on the passionate support of a niche hobbyist community. I've got every sympathy for them as I also sell kits (in a much smaller capacity) and know how precarious things are, and how challenging it is to be heard. Their dependency on each other appears to be a consequence of the difficulty in building sustainable businesses with a small customer base of very opinionated and demanding techies. No-one buys electronic project kits to impress their neighbours.
It seems that the Adafruit team are working hard to put their side of the argument out there, which doesn't speak to innocence or guilt, but does leave me somewhat confused. Neither company seems very well able to deal with criticism or challenges to their deeply held beliefs.
Before buying from either of them in future, I'll be looking carefully for alternatives that aren't likely to drag me into someone else's argument.
Re: Soap opera
Here is more context:
https://chaos.social/@North/115602127173454774
It seems a former sparkfun employee made a site that made fun of PT, to which he over-reacted and led to strange emails to Nate
FYI LadyAda
Limor Fried is frequently known by her moniker 'ladyada', a homage to Lady Ada Lovelace.
I would need to hear SparkFun's side of this, because I already know Adafruit is full of crap. They canceled an order I was depending on when I had the audacity to ask when it would ship, after they had missed the ship date by two weeks, leaving me scrambling for alternatives. They make a few ineresting items but dealing with them isn't worth the drama.